Board of Commissioners Meeting, August 14, 2001
My name is Evelyn Brethour; I am a resident of DeKalb County and an active member of PDK Watch.
We have a serious problem with safety at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport (PDK). I have come here to formally ask the Board of Commissioners to address the problem with a law change.
There is a law on the county’s books that allows for the occasional and special use of blimps, balloons, gliders, and aircraft larger than 75,000 pounds, if prior authorization is granted by the county. It is simply a one-sentence law. For the general public and the public record, the law is Code Section 6-93.
It is my personal opinion that Ms. Levetan [former DeKalb CEO] shamefully abused her powers when she established guidelines for Code Section 6-93 for the airport staff.
Even though Code Section 6-93 clearly applied to the infrequent use of a blimp, balloon, motor-less aircraft, glider from PDK Airport, Ms. Levetan instructed the airport director that she deemed he had the power to allow aircraft weighing more than 75,000 lbs into PDK under this law and encouraged the wholesale abuse of the law to allow larger and heavier aircraft regular every day use of our airport.
In fact, Mr. Remmel [Airport Director] and Ms. Levetan even went so far as to come up with a mass mailing plan to send out “Blanket Pre-Authorization” forms to pilots, the general aviation community and businesses based out of PDK. The public record on April 14, 1999, also showed CEO Levetan established a guideline, which stated: “There is no reason to deny aircraft coming in here that weigh more than 66,000 pounds”.
Well, she could not have been more wrong.
The safety margin that was built into the runway extension has eroded to virtually none with the current abuses taking place under Ms. Levetan’s established guidelines.
Please look at this letter* from the airport director to General Motors Global Headquarters, dated January 29, 2001, and the Gulfstream G-V Manufacturer's Specifications enclosed in your package. I was just provided a copy of that letter last week from a person who filed a noise complaint on that particular plane and flight operation.
I was shocked for several reasons. The Gulfstream G-V fully fueled and loaded takes 5,990 feet to take off according to manufacturer’s specifications. DeKalb-Peachtree Airport only has 6,001 feet (which includes the 1000 feet that was added to the runway for the purpose of reducing the risk of aircraft accidents at PDK, according to the records obtained from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals).
That only leaves 11 feet for pilot error, wind gust, etc!
It is not enough!
The other relevant points made by the airport director in the letter to GM were that:
1. Two types of large jets have recently starting using the airport.
2. That the airport does not have the ability to verify the actual weight of aircraft.
Even though the safety margins established by the FAA and the County are severely compromised when a fully fueled and loaded Gulfstream G-V weighing approximately 90,500 takes off according to Gulfstream’s specsifications, Mr. Remmel’s letter to GM implies that any request to operate a Gulfstream G-V will be allowed, so long as it is not during the [voluntary] curfew hours. He states this despite strong repeated assurances from the FAA, the County and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that the longer runway would not be permitted to be used by large aircraft, weighing more than 66,000 lbs and that the 1000 feet added to the runway would be for the safety, not to provide a longer runway for larger jets.
DeKalb County needs a better law and policy regarding safe use of our runways. We respectfully ask the Board to tighten up the language in Code Sec. 6-93.
Until the Board changes the law, citizens will continue to be abused by CEOs who come and go.
Until this Board of Commissioners defines the County’s vision or goal for the airport and or sets up a general policy, those very few that were established by CEO Levetan during her reign, will continue to prevail and the abuses will continue.
Commissioners, please do not put off addressing this serious safety and liability issue any longer. Please change the Code, 6-93, as soon as you can.
Runway safety margins should never have been compromised for the convenience of aircraft owners. Please study the 11th Circuit Courts of Appeals Ruling and the FAA’s initial legal response regarding the runway margins of safety, which are enclosed in your packets.
If you look at all the schools along the general flight patterns (Henderson Mill, Lakeside High, Briarlake, Oak Grove, Sagamore Hills, on and on) you will understand why this law change can’t wait, shouldn’t wait a day more.
Thank you.
*Letter from Airport Director Lee Remmel to General Motors Global Headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, cites an apparent violation of the DeKalb County 6-93 on January 21, 2001.